My blog has paused for a while since nothing particularly interesting has happened in my research project. Compiling databases and tables, and writing substantial amounts of texts that eventually not will end up in published form is not an exciting subject for a blogpost. But 9-1 October I spent in Munich visiting the diocesan archive of Munich and Freising (https://www.erzbistum-muenchen.de/Ordinariat/Generalvikar/Buero-des-Kanzlers/cont/67266). Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in blogg | Comments Off on The Second Life of the Altomünster Abbey Library

14-18 June I met in Vadstena with my colleagues in the research project The Multisensory World of Vadstena Abbey in the Late Middle Ages, or simply: Multisensory Vadstena. The purpose of the project is the facilitating of total-immersion virtual-reality experiences within the latemedieval Birgittine abbey church at Vadstena. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in blogg | Comments Off on A Brief Report on Multisensory Vadstena

Since shortly, a number of liturgical manuscripts in the C-collection in Uppsala University Library are acceeesible online and FREE TO DOWNLOAD and to be used freely! Below a list if these manuscripts. The are found in the database Alvin https://www.alvin-portal.org and searchable by manuscript siglum or simply click the links below. They will form an important part of my own research, but would be more than happy if they could be useful also for others. The complete C collection is catalogued and accessible online here: http://bilder.manuscripta-mediaevalia.de/hs//kataloge-HSA.htm#Uppsala Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in blogg | Comments Off on Birgittine Manuscripts in Uppsala University Library Online!

In 2005, excavations in Varnhem revealed the ruin one of the earliest churches in Sweden. It was constructed towards the middle of the 11th century and had replaced a wooden church from the end of the 10th century. This church was a private church for a wealthy and Christian family, and is one of the earliest testimonies to an organized Christian cult in medieval Sweden. This is the time before parishes or even dioceses existed and we know next to nothing about which liturgy was used, which books the read and sang from, or from where the priests came. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in blogg | Comments Off on A Short Note on Kata Farm – a Christian Viking Church

Birgitta is of course the most known saint of the Birgittine Order but there are a few others as well. One of them is Richard Reynolds, who lived ca 1492-1535, and fell victim to the English reformation. He was beatified in 1886 and canonized in 1970. Today May 4 is his feast day. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in blogg | Comments Off on On the Feast Day of St Richard Reynolds, Birgittine Martyr

How can organisations like monasteries exist for hundreds of years? What gives them their identity and what makes them find legimitacy through the centuries? Can Max Weber’s conception of charisma help us understanding for example an Order such as the Birgittines and their founder Saint Birgitta?

I just finished an article on invitatory antiphons in the Birgittine liturgy, which I wrote about in an earlier blogpost. So I will this time post the summary of the study, comments are more than welcome. So, a blogpost for true nerds.

The C- collection at Uppsala University library holds what remains of the abbey library in Vadstena, among them quite a number of notated liturgical manuscripts. A visit this week to the manuscript collection made me reflect on how the Vadstena books are structured in relation to books from other Birgittine abbeys. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in blogg | Comments Off on Birgittine Manuscripts from Vadstena Revisited

This blogpost will not be on Gregorian chant or the Birgittines, at least not explicitly. Last week I was asked to present to my colleagues some strategies for successful research applications since I have been granted a few of these. So here is my list…. Read the rest of this entry »